We’ve been pestering Mum and Dad for a pet for just about forever and they finally relent, just when Aurora and I are headed off to college.

I wouldn’t say Coco is the cleanest dog in the world but it’s a lot of fun having her around anyway.

She’s pretty smart, so I’m sure her annoying habits will be history in no time at all.

Justin and Xavier don’t even live here any more but they’ve claimed Coco as their dog as well.

They’re living apart for the first time now: Justin with his girlfriend Louisa and Xavier with a couple of friends.

Xavier is super-busy with law school these days but he and Justin still drop by regularly.

They even lent a hand at Mum’s toy store last weekend.

Mum has had a dream of opening her own store for years now and next year, with the help of a small loan, she’s finally made it happen.

Toys & Tales is a bit of a mess at the moment though and she’s not quite ready for opening day yet.

Being able to open in time for the Christmas rush would have been ideal but it unfortunately didn’t work out that way.

We’ve all been down at the store a lot lately, helping to get Mum set up. She’s hoping to open in a few months and she’s so excited about it.

Well, most of us help. Francesca gets distracted and ends up playing with the toys.

Aurora and I will be heading off to college next year, so we probably won’t be around when the store finally opens. Mum is saying the store will keep her mind off how strange it will feel to have only one kid left at home.

Mum and Dad were both pretty low-pressure about college; Dad didn’t go and has been successful, so our parents know it’s possible.

Aurora and I both really wanted to go though, so we’ve been working hard to make sure that we get to.

Aurora wants to be a mechanic but she’s going to study business, so she can maybe run her own place one day. Or maybe manage a place for someone else. She just knows she wants to work with cars.

She just finished fixing up her own car, which was an old wreck Dad found for her.

He helped her a little in parts but 99% of the work was all her own.

It’s not the prettiest thing in the world but the important thing is that it works!

It’s Aurora’s car but I have twin privilege and can use it whenever she’s not.

Cars have never been an interest of mine. I got right into sewing a few years ago and I want to go into fashion design.

We don’t really have the space for my own machine at home but I work at a fashion design house part-time after school and I sew there.

My boss is kind enough to let me use one their machines for my own projects during my downtime. It helps that she’s a good friend of Mum’s.

But she also just likes to encourage young designers. She calls me her protégé.

I used to think I’d want to design women’s clothing but I’ve been rethinking that lately. The women’s clothing market is oversaturated around here, so I want to focus on kids instead.

It started out as more of a convenience thing, making things for Francesca, just for practice and because she’s an ever-present (and willing!) model.

But I found that I really like making kids’ clothes. I love using really quirky patterns and people are more willing to buy those for their kids than for themselves.

I can’t wait to get to uni and start learning more about the craft and the industry. Normally, I’d be really nervous about such a big change but having Aurora with me is going to make it a lot easier.

The one person I’m really going to miss is Gabriel. He’s a year younger, so he still has one more year of high school left.

He’s going to visit - he’s already made his dad promise he can use the car on weekends - and I’ll come back home when I can.

But going from having him right across the street to having to wait all week to see him is still going to suck.

We want to stay together and I’m confident that we can. That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy or fun though.

Notes:

Title is from I'm Amazed by the Pixies.

I decided that story-wise, it was time Ione had her toy shop but I had no motivation to actually decorate it! So I threw some boxes and duct tape in and pretended she was still setting up. ;) For those curious, she took out a $20,000 loan and paid back $7,000 immediately, as she didn't need that much. The family is about $10,000 in debt now, which I imagine they'll be able to pay back fairly quickly.

Both girls made it into Suffolk easily! My sims need an SAS of 40 to get in and Aurora got a 62 and Bianca got a 66. Bianca has the highest score in the family now, beating Justin's SAS by two points. :)

14 comments:

Great read, thank you! Loved the pictures of the family members playing with the dog, and "working" at the store.I'm extra busy these days with many things, so I don't get to play my own Sims right now as much as I'd like to - reading about someone else's is a good replacement :-)

I was just noticing how gorgeous all of Evan and Ione's children are in their own distinct ways. Each of them look totally different, but you can really see the family resemblance on both sides in all of them. (I don't know why I was also just randomly wondering, before I even read this one actually, if you'd ever done family trees for Sullivan?)

Aww, I have my fingers crossed for Bianca and Gabriel. They are cute. I'm sure they'll be fine, but I also hope she manages to have an enjoyable first year at uni. I know it can be kind of a downer to be attached but not have your guy around, especially in college, and especially if everyone around her is into the partying/dating lifestyle. She might feel either pressured or left out, which isn't fun either way.

Seeing they all ended up with brown hair and grey eyes, the diversity of their looks with everything else is pretty pleasing to me! I have a family tree for Sullivan with MyHeritage but I really need to update it! I don't think I've done it in years.

I tried to keep Gabriel and Bianca away from each other at first because their chemistry is just so damn high. I knew once they got together, that would probably be it for them! I just hope they're not too miserable being apart for a year. It will be tough, I think.

I couldn't help but laugh that they got a pet just as the girls were about to leave for university. That how it seems to work, from the kids point of view, but as a parent, you don't want a pet most times when you have a bunch of kiddos running around. LOL

That was inspired by gameplay too! The girls have had a want for a pet for ages and Evan and Ione only rolled it this round, lol! I can imagine having to care for a dog or cat on top of five kids might be a bit much. ;)

Oh, that's so cool that Bianca and Gabriel have such high chemistry, and I hope the year goes well for them. Bianca's got her interest in design, though, to keep her busy, right? I wonder if he'll have any trouble getting into Suffolk.

Ione's store looks terrific even if it's not totally ready. She's waited a long time, at least as a reader I remember reading about her wanting a store for quite a while.

We used to have a doberman in real life, he died a couple of years ago at the age of 13. He was so sweet and very obedient, VERY smart. But he wasn't messy at all. Their Coco seems adorable and sweet too. And you mentioned him being taller than Francesca; when my youngest was little, Obi was taller than she was.

Gabriel is already into Suffolk, so no worries there. Depending on where they fall in my play schedule, my sims do their SAS at either 16 or 17, whenever their last update before college would be.

I've still done nothing on Ione's store, though it's not a huge deal, as I won't be using it for a while anyway. I've been working on another project - a career lot for the gaming career. :) I do want to get in to do the store at some stage though. Ione has wanted it for a very long time indeed, and I'm excited to finally be able to give it to her!

My uncle had a couple of dobermans when I was a toddler and I was terrified of them! They weren't unfriendly at all - I was just terrified of all dogs back then, including my grandmother's tiny little cat-sized thing! The dobermans were definitely taller than me at that age though, even when on all fours, so it's no wonder they frightened me!

This was such a fun update! It will be so weird when their next update happens, only Francesca in the house will be strange after so many personalities. I can understand why Ione is fine with a dog now, and finally getting that toy store started. It's looking great too, and I like that you just did a set-up for it, I understand not being in the mood for decorating something but wanting it for the story.

I'm excited about the careers for the girls, the design is fun especially the spin on kids clothing and the auto mechanic will be fun to see played out as well. All their kids are doing so well for themselves, can't believe how old the boys are now!

Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, the next update is going to be very quiet indeed, I imagine. Both sets of twins will probably visit though. None of them are the types to have to be nagged into visiting their folks. :)

Still haven't started on the toy store, lol. I got distracted doing Sophie's restaurant, which I'm about to finish off and put up a lot tour for. :) I did download the stuff I wanted for Ione's store though...and then had second thoughts over whether I actually wanted it or not!

All my current designers do women's wear, so I thought I'd mix it up a little. I'd like to have my future designers specialise a little more, like a lot of designers do in real life. It'll give me an excuse to build more clothing stores!

So cute that Aurora is into cars and wants to work as a mechanic. I just find it adorable and how cool she is to have fixed up an old wreak and made it run again. She's a cool chick! ;)

Bianca is a sweetie too. They both seem to know exactly what they want to do, well at least in the industry they want to work. Hopefully Bianca and Gabriel area able to stay together while she is off at Uni. Love Coco the dog too. She is a Doberman? My favorite breed of dog. :)

As long as Aurora lives in a place with a driveway, she'll never be short of money. Those wrecks are really cheap to buy and you make something like $3000 or $4000 profit on them. It'll be a nice little earner for her in the future.

She and Bianca are both very sure of themselves, a bit more than most of my teens. Hopefully, their choices will work out for them - career-wise and otherwise!

Well, Coco was one of the dogs available for adoption via the phone, and in TS2, they don't show the breed name in that section. But she certainly looks like a Doberman, so I'm saying she is. :)